Picture: “State of Exception/ Estado de Excepción”. Backpacks of migrants found in the Arizona desert,
as part of the Undocumented Migration Project led by Jason De León at the University of Michigan.

Fatal Journeys: Improving Data on Missing Migrants

International Organization for Migration

30 November, 2017

“Since the beginning of 2014, IOM has recorded the deaths and disappearances of over 22,500 migrants. IOM has also calculated that at least 60,000 migrants have died since the year 2000. The Mediterranean crossing, which has claimed the lives of 15,000 migrants since it first made headlines in October 2013, is just one example of the many migration routes that see numerous fatalities each year.

However, the true number of migrant fatalities is unknown, as not all deaths and disappearances are reported. In many remote regions of the world, bodies may never be found, and many migrants may never be identified. Each nameless death represents a family missing a loved one”